Time to decentralize curation?
The problem? Attention scarcity among whales. The solution? Delegated voter pools
How could it work? As a trial, implement the feature allowing:
- A whale to select a list of minnows or dolphins to delegate their voting power to.
- A randomization, in the form of a randomly generated list of minnows to populate the voting pool.
In my opinion, each person who has more than a certain threshold of Steem Power which we could deem to be more than a human being can reasonably distribute, could be given the option to opt-into the delegated voting pool feature.
Those who opt in, would then create a list similar to a follow list, but in this case it will be a delegated voter list, which would populate a voting pool. This voting pool would then be able to vote on behalf of the whale and the voting pool would be rewarded with 50% of what the whale would get.
In addition to this, the option to let a whale set the delegate list to random. In this case the voter list is randomly selected.
In my opinion, randomization should add this twist, that for two days out of every week, all whale voting power will be distributed to random bloggers on Steemit. These two days out of the week could be any 2 out of 7, and the bloggers could be any with a high enough reputation.
A/B testing
If it is a trial, then we can now treat it as an A/B test. We could analyze the flow of Steem Power to determine if the changes are improving the flow of Steem Power or not. In my opinion, this test might be controversial a little bit, but it's way less controversial than reward caps or any of the examples which would seem to punish bloggers. In fact this would give bloggers a bit of responsibility, and empower bloggers to be curators for a while, since a lot of bloggers seem to want to complain about how whales are doing the curating.
Summary
A lot of bloggers complain about the curation abilities of whales. Whales have a problem of attention scarcity which can only be solved by using bots or by delegating their voting power. If whales have complete control over the list without randomization then it's open to coercion or other risks, but if there is the element of randomization it makes it so no one can predict what will happen for two days of each week, which would provide a nice data example to analyze.
Thoughts everyone?
Hello :)
This is a really interesting perspective. I haven't heard something like this before, I really like it. I feel like it would help out a wide range of people without giving anyone person too much power. It may take a few adjustments but I feel like overall it could work out nicely.
I only posted twice about this, very novel idea:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@razvanelulmarin/the-great-irony-centralized-whales-upvotes-on-a-blockchain-social-media
https://steemit.com/steemit/@razvanelulmarin/delegating-steempower-the-best-idea-since-the-invention-of-sliced-bread
very happy to see you around here kaylinn,
in the other of the moon :)
fantastic idea
I followed from your longer reply on craig-grants page and yes I agree.. A/B testing is the norm, standard, etc, for almost all things marketing and experimental, so can't imagine what's the hold up here? Keep pitching on our behalf please Dana!
Great idea. Could easily be implemented by bots.
An experiment would be worth it.
Ultimately, any account should ve able to delegate some votes. It would be a nice evolution.
As @dantheman said: the role of whales is more to curate content than to create content .
Your idea is a nice step forward in that direction.
Thanks for the idea.
Your idea is already being tried by the Robin Hood Project, which has been going for about a week. See
https://steemit.com/robinhoodwhale/@laonie/robinhoodwhale-27-08-2016
It's not your fault you have missed it: the tags on the right hand side of the home page are hardcoded rather than dynamic, so tags like the #robinhoodwhale and #minnowsunite are not listed and are only known about by a few people. But the projects do exist.
I feel like the hype period has gone on for way too long. The Whales were only supposed to pump PRO steemit posts until the money was made that started bringing the hot shots over like berwick and shreem or sheen. They were the white knights of our age claiming "come to steemit and make money doing what you're already doing" and phase 3 stalled at the gate.
Curation needs a bit of fixing and a lottery held for the most popular majority voted idea.. At least then we'll see plain and simple if the best idea for steemit as a whole is the best idea for steemit - or the best idea for those at the top.
I don't think the system itself is flawed, it's just the way they started it up that skewed the organic process
so ... 2 possibilities;
although I don't mind some people getting a lot of $ for their posts while others get hardly anything
the problem is that because of that the posts don't sort right ... too many good posts that go unnoticed and because of that sink to the bottom to never be found again ...
so, I'm not sure if something actually needs to be done, it could be that in another 3-6-12 months nobody talks about this anymore because it has been solved, but ... we can't be sure about that AND right now there's definitely a problem
just my 2 cents ...
"it will solve itself over time"
Thats not gonna work this time buddy,
you have a raging civil war going on,
look around... :)
LOOK AROUND
This is quite similar to the idea of adopting the stuff from what slashdot uses. Good stuff! With the opt in & delegation list. A lot like sheriff & deputies.
Randomisation option is like they compare it to the jury duty. I am glad that more people are thinking about the ways to improve the current situation. :-D
Especially since my posts on those topics have a visibility problem so far.
exactly!
:)
I like the idea but how does the community move a proposal like this forward? In the RAPID model of Steemit governance, who has the D?
I can make a further proposal.
also need to choose a non-English speaking curators.
overwhelming attention paid to English-speaking segment of the network.
Here I am
The randomization element would mean 2 days per week any random people could be the curators. That means any language speakers could be in the pool because it's a random lottery.
nearly 77K users and only 2 days a week :)
to old age someone will get ability to 2 days to be a whale :)